


Keep Moving

by Nightmarechaser



Category: Original Work
Genre: Discovery, Exploration, Gen, Journey, Life - Freeform, Moving On, Soul-Searching, Walking, so you can't either, time does not stop, wandering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:21:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22451809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nightmarechaser/pseuds/Nightmarechaser
Summary: You don't really know where you're going, but you have to keep moving.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7





	Keep Moving

You don’t really know where you’re going.

You’ve been wandering for a while, now. It’s… Well, it’s a lot of things.

It’s tiring, for one. You know you can’t stop, at least, not forever. You may not be sure why, but you know you have to keep moving. You’ve paused at times, just to rest, but you always have to start again. Nothing is chasing you, there’s no urgency to your meander, but you have to keep moving all the same. 

It’s confusing, too. You think you should know where you’re going, but you don’t. You’ve passed a few people, not many, but a few, and they all seem to have destinations in mind. They know exactly where they’re going and what they’re going to do when they get there. Sometimes, when you feel especially lost and discouraged, you envy them that.

Other times- Other times you wonder what they’re going to do after they reach their goals. Maybe they’ll find new goals, or maybe then they’ll be as lost as you. They can’t stop, either. You know that. You’re unsure how, but you know that they have to keep moving, too. You don’t know if they know that, though, because they always speak of their goals like they’re the end, like they’re the stopping point, but you know they’re not. Everyone always has to keep moving.

It’s frightening, if you think too hard about it. Late at night, when the endless directionless wandering finally manages to get to you, to crawl under your skin and squeeze your lungs tight, it keeps you from sleeping. No matter what happens to you, what companions you make, what tragedies you face, you’ll always have to keep moving. You’ve seen a few others stopped, before, alongside the paths or in the wilds, kneeling and unmoving, unable to carry on. Maybe they’ll move again, maybe they won’t. If they breathe long enough, they’ll have to. On your worst nights, you wonder what it would take for you to end up like the ones that didn’t breathe long enough, the ones that stopped forever.

But then the sun rises and you move again, dark wonderings disappearing like dew under the heat of day. 

Because sometimes- Sometimes, it’s  _ fun _ . You forget, every once in a while, but you love it, the exploration, the discovery. You don’t think you could sit still even if you had the option. You’d find yourself aching for the peace of the wind in your hair, the crunch of gravel and dirt beneath your feet, the curiosity of what’s over the next hill or around the next bend, and the excitement of each new discovery.

You’ve come pretty far, haven’t you? You’ve seen a lot of things, and while, yes, some of them fuel the sleepless nights, some of them? Some of them are  _ beautiful _ . Valleys stretching out before you like a sea of grass, gently waving in the breeze; Groves of trees blossoming in pale hues, petals fragrant and sweet in the air; Ravines and canyons cutting through the landscape like veins, deep enough to muffle the sounds of water at the bottom; Sunsets and sunrises which spill like dye across the sky, no two exactly alike; even little green growing things sprouting in the desert, hidden in the crevasses where water gathers like secret treasures.

You don’t really know where you’re going, but at least you can enjoy the sights along the way.

And sometimes, when the way forward gets especially tough, you look behind you. You can’t go back, you know that, but you look behind you to see how far you’ve come. It’s a long way, you can’t even see where you started from anymore. You look behind you, and sometimes it hurts a tad, but mostly you swallow hard around a bolt of pride, because you’ve made it that far. Maybe you are not the fastest traveller, but you made it that far, and that’s an accomplishment you’ll keep close to your heart, for the days when it’s oh so very hard to find the will to move forward like you know you have to.

You don’t really know where you’re going, but you’ve made it this far, so you can go just a little further. And who knows? Maybe your next great discovery is just around the corner.

**Author's Note:**

> as always, comments are amazing and i love them
> 
> honestly, my college student is probably showing through in this piece. It's weird, being at that point when you have to make major decisions in your life, but you don't know where you're going. Time ain't stopping, either, you gotta move forward somehow. So, idk, here's a piece on how time never stops and we all have to keep moving, even if we don't know where we're going


End file.
